How Long a Condo Renovation Takes in Vancouver, Stage by Stage

What sets the total length

The total is the sum of eight stages, and the building work is only one of them. Four stages happen before any work starts in the unit: getting the building's documents, design, the hazardous materials inspection and the strata's decision. Permits and ordering follow. Then comes the work on site, and last the documents that finish the job.

Different parties control different stages. You control how fast you choose a layout and products. The strata council controls the date of its decision. The City of Vancouver controls its permits. Suppliers control how long an order takes. The contractor controls the work on site, inside the hours your building allows.

For that reason we give a start date only after the strata's written approval has arrived and the permit question is settled with the City.

The eight stages, what sets each length, and who controls it

The table lists the stages in order. Every week figure in it is one of our published figures for a house on the North Shore. The legal deadlines come from BC's Strata Property Act.

Stage 1: the bylaws and the strata plan

Ask the strata in writing for its bylaws, its rules, any renovation form or alteration agreement, and the registered strata plan. An alteration agreement is the written permission with conditions that some stratas ask an owner to sign. The strata plan is the registered drawing that shows where your unit ends and the common property begins.

The law sets the wait. Under section 36(3) of the Strata Property Act, the strata must provide its bylaws and rules within one week of an owner's request, and its other records within 2 weeks.

These documents decide the rest of the schedule. They state which work needs approval in your building, what the request must contain, and the hours when work is allowed.

Stage 2: design and the request package

The design stage ends when you have a fixed layout and a list of chosen products. The strata request needs both, because a council approves a described scope with named products.

Our project timeline calculator gives 3 weeks of design and planning for a kitchen in a house and 2 weeks for a bathroom. Those are house figures. In a condo, the same stage also produces the request package: the written scope, drawings, product sheets, the contractor's documents and the planned dates.

A complete package leaves the council fewer questions to ask. If the request leaves out a document your building's form lists, the council can ask for it, and its answer may then wait for a later meeting.

Stage 3: the hazardous materials inspection

The inspection must be done before work begins, so book it during the design stage. Section 20.112 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation requires the employers responsible for a renovation, and the owner, to ensure that a qualified person inspects the building for hazardous materials before the work starts. WorkSafeBC says a home built before 1990 is likely to contain some asbestos.

The result changes the schedule in one of two ways. If the report finds nothing hazardous in the areas the work will disturb, the work can go ahead. If it finds asbestos or another hazardous material, section 20.112(7) and (8) stop any work that may disturb that material until it is safely contained or removed and a qualified person has confirmed this in writing.

We have no published figure for how long an inspection or a removal takes, so this page gives none. Send the report to the strata with your request.

Stage 4: the strata's decision

An ordinary renovation request sent to the strata manager is answered on the council's own meeting schedule, which each council sets. We publish no usual approval time, because we have no source for one. Ask the manager for the date of the next council meeting and the last day to add an item to its agenda.

The Strata Property Act sets deadlines once you ask for a hearing. Under section 34.1, an owner may request a hearing at a council meeting by writing to the council and stating the reason. The council must hold a meeting to hear the owner within 4 weeks after the request. If the purpose of the hearing is to get a decision, the council must give a written decision within one week after the hearing. From a written hearing request to a written decision, the longest wait the Act allows is 5 weeks.

An approval can come with conditions, such as an agreement on expenses that Standard Bylaw 5(2) lets the strata require. Leave time to meet them before the first working day.

Stage 5: permits

Inside the City of Vancouver, the City issues electrical and gas permits. Technical Safety BC, the body that runs BC's Safety Standards Act, lists the City of Vancouver among 10 municipalities that issue their own electrical and gas permits. It also says that when you hire a licensed contractor, the contractor applies for the permit on your behalf.

The City sets its own processing times for these permits and for building permits. Its website refused our automated requests on October 4, 2026, so we could read none of its pages and this page states no City time. We ask the City about each project and add its answer to the schedule.

Stage 6: ordering

The product with the longest wait sets the length of this stage. In a kitchen that product is the cabinets. Our published wait for a cabinet order is 8 to 12 weeks.

The day the order is placed is your decision. An order placed before the strata's written approval saves time if the council approves the request unchanged. If the council asks for a change to the layout, a made-to-measure order may no longer fit, and you pay to change it. We tell you which items are safe to order early and which should wait for the approval letter.

Stage 7: the work on site

Our published durations show how long the building work takes in a house on the North Shore. A kitchen renovation with permits takes 10 to 16 weeks from demolition to completion. A single bathroom takes 4 to 6 weeks, and a bathroom with plumbing relocation takes 6 to 10 weeks.

Our timeline calculator divides a house kitchen into stages that add up to 16 weeks, of which 10 are on site. Its bathroom stages add up to 10 weeks, of which 6 are on site. The calculator holds no stage for strata approval.

These are house figures. They assume a crew that can work a full day and bring materials to the door.

Why the same scope takes longer on site in a condo

Four conditions add days on site in a condo. Each one is set by your building, so we attach no number to any of them.

• Working hours. Your building's bylaws, rules or alteration agreement set the days and hours when work is allowed. Fewer hours in a day mean more days for the same work.
• Elevator bookings. Materials, tools and waste travel by elevator. Where the building requires a booking, each delivery and each waste removal has to fit a booked time.
• Deliveries. A condo has a shared loading area and no room to store a full kitchen, so materials arrive in smaller loads on the days they are needed.
• Common property. Work on a shared pipe, a duct or any other common property waits for the strata's written approval under Standard Bylaw 6. If a change of that kind appears after the job has started, the work on that part stops until the approval arrives.

What an owner can do early to shorten the total

Most of the time an owner can save is in the stages before the work. Each step below can start in the first week.

• Request the bylaws, the rules, the renovation form and the strata plan on the first day. The one-week and 2-week deadlines in section 36(3) start with your request.
• Ask the strata manager for the council's next meeting date and the last day to add an item to its agenda. Plan the request package to arrive before that day.
• Book the hazardous materials inspection while the design is being drawn, so that the report is ready to send with the request.
• Choose the flooring, fixtures and appliances before the request goes in. A council that receives product sheets has fewer questions to ask.
• Send one complete request. Use the same scope wording in the contract and in the request, so the council approves the work that will be built.
• If a council meeting passes with no answer, send a written hearing request under section 34.1. It starts the 4-week and one-week deadlines.
• Decide with your contractor which orders can be placed before the approval letter and which should wait.
• Ask the building how far ahead elevator times must be booked, and book the delivery days as soon as the start date is fixed.

Which stages can run at the same time

Some stages overlap, and a schedule that uses the overlap is shorter. The inspection can run during design. The permit question can go to the City while the council is reading the request. Orders for items that no council condition could change can be placed during the wait for approval.

Two stages must follow each other in order. Standard Bylaw 5(1) requires the strata's written approval before the alteration is made, so demolition waits for the approval letter. And any hazardous material named in the report is contained or removed before the work around it begins.

We write the schedule as a list of dated stages and show which dates depend on the council and on the City. When one of those dates moves, we send a revised schedule.